The missing months

I didn't have time to post much to the blog last year or to do any painting, but I did keep up the gaming. I won't go into too much detail at this remove, but feel compelled to make some sort of report to appease the god of completeness (if there is one).

Following an initial game of The Men Who Would Be Kings, my friend Ian wanted to try out 1914 by Great Escape Games. This was far too gamey for me for an historical game, but it did inspire me to revisit Square Bashing. We played a lot of games and I even dug up, reorganised and based my 10mm Chinese Warlord Era armies.

A 1918 Square Bashing game.

After that we moved on to Dead Man's Hand Redux by Great Escape Games which was a refreshing diversion. This is inherently gamey, but that's more acceptable to me in this cinematic, fun context. Ian has a huge collection of Old West figures and buildings to draw on, not that you need much for this boutique game.

A tense moment in Dead Man's Hand Redux.

Later in the year we returned to Xenos Rampant in order to prepare for a demo game at Cavalier 2025. With the Cavalier plans sorted, Ian agreed to explore Eisenhower which is where we are now and on which I've already posted.

 

Operation Crusader: Eisenhower using Ian's 6mm
North African forces.

 
Our focus on Eisenhower was interrupted last week which gave me a chance to join a game of Crossfire kindly organised by club member Hamish. I was severely over-exposed to Crossfire in 2014 when preparing the Crossfiregrad demo game for Cavalier 2015 and haven't wanted to play it since. I can hardly believe that's ten years ago. But time heals and last night's game piqued my interest again.

I commanded two platoons of German veterans fighting off three platoons of British supported by HMGs, heavy mortars and a Churchill tank. The British didn't cover their attack by properly smoking or suppressing me and were thus convincingly seen off. I destroyed two platoons and the Churchill.

One of the many great things about Crossfire is that a good game can easily be staged within the 3-hour window of a club evening.

My last Salute?

There was some fantastic scenery at Salute 25 but the usual horrible lighting and noise level gave me a pounding migraine which lasted all day and into the evening. I also sat on a chair which was apparently broken and collapsed under me. Nobody had thought to put it out of the way.

The trade stands were dominated by Fantasy/SciFi start-ups flogging myriad ranges and rules, and big box shifters reflecting the commodification of the hobby.

I found a couple of games of particular personal interest: Simon Miller's Lust for Glory (in development) and an excellent and amusing presentation of the Two Fat Lardies' Chain of Command.

But as long as the show is at ExCel and on its current trajectory, I will probably never go again.

This is also the first year that I didn't notice anybody that I used to know when I was a member of the South London Warlords back in the Seventies...